Lionel snaps,
                    Suarez bites,
crunch time
                    for Abidal
at Camp Nou.

Is nothing special really
I am in my blue checkered boxers
Wearing an unbottoned green flannel
Getting ready for my fourth beer
Listening to classical that I only
Listen to when I drink and/or read
And/or write
And I keep shutting off the typewriter and picking up
James Thurber and the Goethe
And I keep thinking
Wait until spring Suarez
It means something to me today
And then I drop it all
To pick up the beer
There are grapefruits and a cactus
In a broken planter on the tile floor
There is soil and coffee grounds
Down there too
And used shaving razors and Q-tips
And old beers and bad poems
And this one should be there with all
The other trash
But it's here instead
Oh well...
The life and
The sun and
The breeze and
The lungs
Oh well...
Last week I accidentally
Smashed my bookcase while I was
Drunk
And now there are three horrifying
Stacks
Beside my bed
And I hope their dusts
Infect me with their cancer
Forever
Oh well...

My middle school history teacher
Made me stay after school one day
"Look, your essay is alright, but I know you ******* it. Your a good writer, so your gonna stay and rewrite the whole thing."
I didn't care about school or writing
But I thought, ****, maybe I'm good
At this
Then I got into high school
And the entire freshman class
Had to enter an essay contest
"How the Civil Rights movement still influences us today"
I remember the teacher was a
Real stuck up *****
I wasn't interested in her class
I hardly showed up
And she wasn't interested in me
But I showed up for the announcement of the winner
All the kids were excited
"And the winner is...Raymond Suarez" she read it like a
guilty verdict
"Who's that?" A pale blond asked
"Him" the teacher pointed at me
The excitement in the room hit the pavement hard
I wasn't smiling
but I was
"There will be a banquet with the other state winners to see if you won the state finals. I'll give you the information in a few days"
"OK"
She never did...
Then I ran into that middle school history teacher again
We exchanged phone numbers and he called me that night
"Ray...I gotta tell you something... I'm gay"
"ok..."
Then he called me a few nights later
I was drunk and he wanted me to come over alone
"Nah, I'm gonna stay drinkin with Andy"
"Come on, just come over, I got beer and food, I'll pay for the taxi to drop Andy off and bring you here, what are ya, chickenshit? Your ****** chickenshit man" he said in his sloppy Texan drawl
"Nah"
I opened another beer
And wondered if he ever really thought my writing
Was any good
Then I guzzled that cold crisp beer
Down
And that took care of that thought
And all the rest

Here I go again searching for a friend
Looking for someone to recommend
Someone to help me progress in life
Maybe this person could end up my wife

I’ve been looking and hoping to no avail
I feel I need a partner to help me prevail
Maybe I’ll find her or maybe I won’t
My dreams are beginning to feel remote

I’ve got to have faith is what everyone says
Just my luck I run into my friend Suarez
He tells me he knows of a perfect match
Almost like a winning ticket I don’t have to scratch

Her name is Becky I say to myself with a smile
I can’t wait to meet her, I haven’t felt love in awhile
She arrives at my house as quiet as a mouse
I feel really confident that she will be my spouse

If a canine ran on to the
the pitch and bit Giorgio
or indeed Luis Suarez,
the dog would be put down.


I am an animal rights campaigner
and this now brings to light, the
discrimination between stray dogs
and football players.

PETA and FIFA should insist on
egalitarianism for man's best friend.

I demand that either Luis Suarez
is given a lethal injection, a stake
through the heart or that from now
on, all offending dogs be judged
by the same criteria as FIFA.

Life is a disease
Which we all catch and die
Please baby please
I ain't gonna lie

Her mind does not make sense
Neither does her body
When I was in Dublin
One hot toddy

Dance me through the panic
I listen to the rain
Carolina blue
The whale as well is Spain

                  Fernando!

72 and 37
Multiple times today
Still don't know, still don't know
Precisely what it means

Gordon Lightfoot on my player
Sundown
Moonglow
Time for a summertime dream

Been to Canada several times
Not yet Mexico
Like Jonathan Swift
Horizontal vertigo

May is Mary's month
May day is Beltane
Angelica at the bank
Fernando Suarez Spain

               La Florida!

Fernando Suarez taught me Spanish
But I wasn't a very good student
Sometimes fall asleep in class
Tired from basketball

Dali Museum in Florida
Last Supper in DC
Lorca killed for being gay
Body never found

My son born in Santa Rosa
Spring break in Santa Fe
Tapas in DC
Paella in the Fall

Venezuelans at the Border
Romero assassinated
Jarritos Mexican soda
Adios Ezra Pound

          Maria! Maria!

so Fernando Suarez was my high school Spanish teacher in La Florida the Land of Flowers he used to take pictures of me when I fell asleep in class with a flash to wake me up with drool running out of my mouth on to my desk and books because I stayed up late after basketball practice studying and before I lived in La Florida I lived in Sacramento California is also a Spanish word as are Santa and Rosa where my youngest son was born Teresa of Avila said she wasn't afraid of Satan me neither but she was afraid of those who are afraid of Satan and I am afraid of predation at times and annihilation but not of the Dark Night of the Soul one Dark Knight Chicago I went out unseen ah! the sheer grace Joe Perez and a beautiful Mexican girl were in CCD with me in Sacramento and Alex who is from Tucson played a lot of ping pong in Chicago wonder and exile in the new world amazing Cabeza de Vaca la Raza Cosmica Richard Rodriguez discovery of Brown my mother went to the University of Toledo my mother Sally Brown who died in Georgetown.          

                                 Viva!

so Fernando Suarez was my high school Spanish teacher in La Florida the Land of Flowers he used to take pictures of me when I fell asleep in class with a flash to wake me up with drool running out of my mouth on to my desk and books because I stayed up late after basketball practice studying and before I lived in La Florida I lived in Sacramento California is also a Spanish word as are Santa and Rosa where my youngest son was born Teresa of Avila said she wasn't afraid of Satan me neither but she was afraid of those who are afraid of Satan and I am afraid of predation at times and annihilation but not of the Dark Night of the Soul one Dark Knight Chicago I went out unseen ah! the sheer grace Joe Perez and a beautiful Mexican girl were in CCD with me in Sacramento and Alex who is from Tucson played a lot of ping pong in Chicago wonder and exile in the new world amazing Cabeza de Vaca la Raza Cosmica Richard Rodriguez discovery of Brown my mother went to the University of Toledo my mother Sally Brown who died in Georgetown.          

                                 Viva!

James Taylor in Chapel Hill
Where I played basketball
German Catholic rebellion
All Walls Fall

Solitude is peaceful
And lonely as the rain
My mind at times is Greeceful
And death obsessed like Spain

Gracias, Fernando Suarez
Por favor, Manuel
Frederick, Maryland?
Only time will tell

I walk the Empty Diamond
Tired in the night
Mind on California
Sor Juana's mystic flight

                South!

The Unconscious may be Timeless
Like art, Like Plato's Forms
I'm 53 and falling
Some good thing yet to do

I thank God for basketball
Since 7 or 8 years old
My father built the hoop
I'm Carolina blue

Senyor Fernando Suarez
My high school Spanish teacher
Viva La Florida!
3772

                     Dali!

lived in California twice Sacramento Santa Rosa youngest son born Mark Mike and Steve drove down I 5 to San Diego balboa park was beautiful sunny day no pedophiles the ocean brilliant blue not much for l.a. but i do love movies san francisco more my style moroccan mint tea exploritorium richard rodriguez alone and writing brown the last discovery my mothers maiden name was brown hablo espanyol solamente un pequito fernando suarez was my teacher la florida pero california snow lake tahoe yo

                                   no one will ever know ...